Consistency Yields Results – Only When…!
- by Blaine Helwig
- Feb 21
- 2 min read
After volunteering to help a colleague with her yard work, I spent three hours mowing in the intense afternoon Texas heat. Despite the extra effort required by the overgrown lawn, her only comment upon completion was a reference to my gym routine, suggesting this was workout enough.
"It was tougher with the grass so high," I replied politely. "But if I lived here, I'd only be mowing the lawn every three weeks, hardly enough for a consistent workout."
This scenario might seem obvious, but I’ve seen the same pattern in schools. Many teachers and administrators implement core programs in that same 'once every few weeks' fashion. The most telling part? When asked about their academic strategy, these educators don't even realize their curricular effort is too inconsistent to produce real student 'gains.'
Consistency in Context
Consistence at anything we do is pivotal to mastering a task, skill or application. However, being consistent in an implementation will not automatically elevate student outcomes. An educator must be consistent at practices and interventions THAT matter. For instance, consistency in the wrong intervention is a year-long path to zero academic improvement. An educator must understand WHAT, HOW and WHY to implement in a Tier 1, stop-gap curricular program, or intervention process. Then and only then, does the element of consistency come into play that makes a substantial impact on student outcomes.
Consistency Yields Results – Only When…!
I have observed other patrons at my gym sporadically engage in varying exercises for months, and – of course – they do not observe physical gains in their muscle development. They have no targeted WHAT or WHY and quite often HOW in their daily physical regime that addresses their objective. Their determination is commendable; these individuals have regularly attended the gym for months. They are consistent, but without desired performance results because of an inconsistent program regimen that specifically targets their desired muscle groups.
It is no different in public-school classrooms. Teachers and school administrators must know WHAT and WHY curricular stop-gap programs and intervention processes are needed. The 'HOW' is determined once the initial two inquiries have been resolved. Then, consistency is the necessary element that naturally follows. In summary, consistency yields results ONLY WHEN the targeted approach addresses the fundamental goal. Otherwise, there is continued frustration each May when poor academic performance continues despite hard work, albeit inefficiently and ineffectively.
